Ramblings of Charles Prier – Writer-Insomniac-General Know-it-All

Archive for July, 2011

I once knew a guy who talked about building a machine using an electric generator and an electric motor connected in such a way that the motor would spin the generator and the electricity it generated would power the motor. He further suggested that through a belt and pulley arrangement the wheels on a go-cart could be turned to move the go-cart along. He was adamant that his theory would work. Unfortunately he did not have the manual skills or financial backing to build a model.

Bob has stopped talking about his perpetual motion powered go-cart. Today he is a Tea-partier proclaiming that reducing taxes for everyone making more than $400,000 a year, continuing corporate welfare to the oil companies, and cutting Medicare while privatizing Social Security will end unemployment, eliminate the deficit, and fill the government’s tax coffers.

Bob elects and blindly supports legislators that make foolish pledges that limit any innate intelligence, judgment, or problem-solving ability they could bring to their job. Bob is too busy and ill-equipped to understand or keep up with the political issues. He is easily confused and will likely continue to fall prey to the Tea Party blather and vote against his own best interest.

The debt problems facing our nation are serious, yet Bob’s heroes, in blind defiance, are refusing to take a balanced approach to dealing with the issues. If they keep this up we all lose, even those making more than $400,000 a year will suffer significant loss.

(Originally published as a Letter-to-the-Editor The Hartwell Sun July 7. 2011)